Information provision system, information provision device, information provision method, terminal device, and display method

ABSTRACT

An information provision system includes a terminal device, and an information provision device that can communicate with the terminal device. The information provision device includes a communicating section configured to communicate with the terminal device, a head count information managing section configured to manage current head count information for each position, and a crowd information generating section configured to determine a position for making a notification display based on the managed head count information, and generate crowd information containing information of the determined position, and a transmission control section configured to transmit the generated crowd information from the communicating section to the terminal device. The terminal device includes a communicating section configured to communicate with the information provision device, and a control section configured to execute display of a map image on a display section, and execute a display based on the transmitted crowd information on the map image.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present invention contains subject matter related to Japanese PatentApplication JP 2007-270393 filed in the Japanese Patent Office on Oct.17, 2007, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an information provision system, aninformation provision device, an information provision method, aterminal device, and a display method. More specifically, the presentinvention relates to a technique that makes it possible to provideinformation about the gathering condition of people.

2. Description of the Related Art

Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-11391discloses a map creation system which extracts subjective informationabout a user and maps the extracted information onto a map.

In this system, different kinds of electronic information resulting fromuser's actions are collectively captured as action information, suchaction information is collected and accumulated together with positioninformation, and subjective information of an actor related to alocation is extracted from the action information, and the subjectiveinformation is mapped onto an existing objective map, thereby creating amap made up of subjective information of people acting in the realworld, which is highly subjective and informative and is not found inthe related art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

With technological progress such as advances in communicationsinfrastructure, development of sensor networks, and reductions in weightand increases in capacity of storage devices, it is becoming possible torealize a system which detects, records, or accumulates an action of angeneral user to provide useful information or advertisement adapted tothe action, position, or condition of the user, or to recommend acontent so as to match the preferences of the user.

For a general person, when, in particular, an incident that is difficultto know in advance is happening, such as an accidental incident, or anevent that is not notified (or widely notified) by an advertisement orthe like, if the person can be notified of the occurrence or thepossibility of occurrence of such an incident, provision of suchinformation proves useful.

For example, if more people than usual are gathering at a givenlocation, it can be presumed that some fun incident or interestingincident is happening at that location.

It is thus desirable to take notice of a condition in which people aregathering, and provide information of such a condition to the user.

An information provision system according to an embodiment of thepresent invention includes a terminal device, and an informationprovision device that can communicate with the terminal device.

The information provision device according to an embodiment of thepresent invention which constitutes the above-mentioned informationprovision system includes communicating means for communicating with theterminal device, head count information managing means for managingcurrent head count information for each position, crowd informationgenerating means for determining a position for making a notificationdisplay, on the basis of the head count information managed by the headcount managing means, and generating crowd information containinginformation of the position for making a notification display, andtransmission control means for causing the crowd information generatedby the crowd information generating means to be transmitted from thecommunicating means to the terminal device.

Further, the terminal device according to an embodiment of the presentinvention which constitutes the above-mentioned information provisionsystem includes communicating means for communicating with theinformation provision device, and control means for executing a displayof a map image on an integrated or separate display section, andexecuting on the map image a display based on crowd informationtransmitted from the information provision device and received by thecommunicating means.

In the information provision device according to an embodiment of thepresent invention mentioned above, the communicating means receivescurrent condition information transmitted from an external terminaldevice and containing at least current position information of theterminal device, and the head count information managing means managesthe current head count information at each position by using thereceived current condition information.

Further, the current condition information also contains identificationinformation on the terminal device side, and the head count informationmanaging means manages information of a person present at each positionon the basis of the identification information.

Further, the current condition information further contains biometricinformation or motion information of a person carrying the terminaldevice, and the head count information managing means manages thebiometric information or the motion information as the information of aperson present at each position, together with the identificationinformation.

Further, the head count information managing means manages attributeregistration information of a person who uses the terminal device, inassociation with the identification information.

Further, the head count information managing means manages stay time ata current position in association with the identification information,as the information of a person present at each position.

Further, the crowd information generating means in the informationprovision device determines the position for making a notificationdisplay by determining whether or not a current head count at eachposition is equal to or more than a predetermined head count, from thehead count information managed by the head count information managingmeans.

Further, when determining whether or not the current head count at eachposition is equal to or more than a predetermined head count, the crowdinformation generating means makes the determination while setting adifferent value of the predetermined head count for each position, todetermine the position for making a notification display.

Further, the crowd information generating means determines the positionfor making a notification display by determining whether or not thecurrent head count at each position as a position within a specific arearange is equal to or more than a predetermined head count.

Further, the crowd information generating means determines the positionfor making a notification display by determining, as the current headcount for each position, a current head count of persons who match apredetermined extraction criterion, and determining whether or not thedetermined current head count is equal to or more than a predeterminedhead count. The extraction criterion includes at least one of person'sattribute registration information, biometric information, motioninformation, and stay time.

Further, the crowd information generating means determines the positionfor making a notification display on the basis of a position where acurrent head count is equal to or more than a predetermined head count,and in accordance with distribution of attribute information of personspresent.

Further, the crowd information generating means in the informationprovision device determines the position for making a notificationdisplay by determining whether or not an amount of change in head countat each position is equal to or more than a predetermined amount ofchange, from the head count information managed by the head countinformation managing means.

Further, when determining whether or not the amount of change in currenthead count at each position is equal to or more than a predeterminedhead count, the crowd information generating means makes thedetermination by setting a different value of the reference amount ofchange for each position, to determine the position for making anotification display.

Further, the crowd information generating means determines the positionfor making a notification display by determining whether or not theamount of change in current head count at each position as a positionwithin a specific area range is equal to or more than a reference amountof change.

Further, the crowd information generating means determines the positionfor making a notification display by determining a current head count ofpersons who match a predetermined extraction criterion at each position,and determining whether or not an amount of change in the determinedcurrent head count is equal to or more than a reference amount ofchange. The extraction criterion includes at least one of person'sattribute registration information, biometric information, motioninformation, and stay time.

Further, the crowd information generating means determines the positionfor making a notification display on the basis of a position where anamount of change in head count is equal to or more than a referenceamount of change, and in accordance with distribution of attributeinformation of persons present.

Further, the crowd information generating means generates crowdinformation containing information of a position determined as theposition for making a notification display, and information of a currenthead count or an amount of change in head count at the position.

Further, the crowd information generating means generates crowdinformation containing information of a position determined as theposition for making a notification display, and information of anextraction criterion used when determining the position.

Further, the crowd information generating means generates crowdinformation containing information of a position determined as theposition for making a notification display, and additional informationfor the determined position.

Further, the transmission control means causes the crowd informationgenerated by the crowd information generating means to be transmittedfrom the communicating means to the terminal device, in response toreception of request information from the external terminal device.

Alternatively, the transmission control means causes the crowdinformation generated by the crowd information generating means to betransmitted from the communicating means to the terminal device, attransmission timing according to a change in head count condition.

An information provision method according to an embodiment of thepresent invention includes the steps of managing current head countinformation for each position, determining a position for making anotification display, on the basis of the managed head countinformation, and generating crowd information containing information ofthe position for making a notification display, and transmitting thegenerated crowd information to an external terminal device.

In the terminal device according to an embodiment of the presentinvention mentioned above, the crowd information to be received containsthe position information of a position for making a notificationdisplay, and information of a current head count or an amount of changein head count at the position, and the control means executes, as thedisplay based on the crowd information, a display that varies inaccordance with the current head count or the amount of change in headcount, at a position on the map image corresponding to the positioninformation.

Further, the crowd information contains the position information of aposition for making a notification display, and information of anextraction criterion used when determining the position, and the controlmeans executes, as the display based on the crowd information, a displaythat varies in accordance with the extraction criterion, at a positionon the map image corresponding to the position information.

Further, the crowd information contains the position information of aposition for making a notification display, and additional informationwith respect to the position, and the control means executes a displaybased on the additional information as the display based on the crowdinformation, at a position on the map image corresponding to theposition information.

A display method according to an embodiment of the present inventionrelates to a display method for a terminal device that can communicatewith an external information provision device, including the steps ofreceiving crowd information containing position information of aposition for making a notification display, from the informationprovision device, and executing a display of a map image on anintegrated or separate display section and executing a display based onthe received crowd information of the map image.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, on the informationprovision device side, how many people are gathering at each position(location) is detected and managed. Then, a position (location) wherethe number of people currently present is equal to or more than apredetermined head count, or where the amount of change in head count isequal to or more than a predetermined reference amount of change isdetermined, and information of that position is provided to the terminaldevice as crowd information. On the terminal device side, a displaybased on the crowd information is made. For example, on a map image, adisplay indicating gathering of people is made at a position wherepeople are gathering. Thus, the user of the terminal device is able toknow that some incident is happening at that location.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the user of theterminal device is able to know an incident, an event, or the like thatthe user would not normally be able to know unless he/she were on thescene, as information indicating a position where people are gathering.This makes it possible to provide very useful information to the user.

Further, a display that expresses not simply a gathering of people butalso information such as what kinds of people are gathering, about howmany people are gathering, and the like is made, which also provessuitable for the user to judge whether or not an incident that ishappening at that location is of interest to the user. It is thuspossible to provide appropriate information to the user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a system configurationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a terminal device according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a terminal device according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a terminal device according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a terminal device according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a server device according to an embodimentof the present invention;

FIGS. 7A and 7B are explanatory diagrams of a head count managementdatabase according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a registered user database accordingto an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of a position management databaseaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a process of transmitting/receiving currentcondition information according to an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIGS. 11A to 11D are explanatory diagrams of the structure of currentcondition information according to an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram of a process of updating a head countmanagement database according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram of a process of updating a registereduser database according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a process of managing changes in head countaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of an operation example I for display of crowdinformation according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 16A to 16D are explanatory diagrams of the structure of requestinformation according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 17A to 17F are explanatory diagrams of the structure of crowdinformation according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 18 is a flowchart of an operation example II for display of crowdinformation according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 19 is a flowchart of an operation example III for display of crowdinformation according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 20 is an explanatory view of a display example of crowd marksaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 21 is an explanatory view of a display example of crowd marks basedon extraction criteria according to an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 22 is an explanatory view of a display example of crowd marks withadditional information added thereto, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention; and

FIG. 23 is an explanatory view of a display example of crowd marks basedon crowd inevitability levels according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Hereinbelow, an embodiment of the present invention will be described.The description will be given in the following order of topics.

[1. System Configuration] [2. Terminal Device Configuration] [3. ServerDevice Configuration]

[4. Transmission of Current Condition Information from Terminal Deviceto Server Device]

[5. Determination of Head Count Transition in Server Device] [6.Operation Example I for Display of Crowd Information] [7. OperationExample II for Display of Crowd Information] [8. Operation Example IIIfor Display of Crowd Information] [9. Example of Filtering Process byExtraction Criterion] [10. Display Examples] [11. Effect of Embodimentand Modifications] [1. System Configuration]

FIG. 1 shows an example of a system configuration according to thisembodiment.

A system of this embodiment includes terminal devices 1, 1A, 1B, and aserver device 70 (information provision device) that can communicatewith each other via a network 60.

The terminal devices 1, 1A, 1B are devices carried by users, forexample, mobile equipment.

The system of this embodiment assumes that a large number of usersindividually carry the terminal devices 1, for example. Information onthe current position of each user is transmitted to the server device 70from each of the terminal devices 1, so the server device 70 thusmanages the current positions of a large number of users. Then, theserver device 70 determines a “location where people are gathering”.

Once the server device 70 transmits information on the “location wherepeople are gathering” as crowd information to the terminal device 1, onthe terminal device 1 side, a notification display based on the crowdinformation is made. For example, a display indicating the locationwhere people are gathering is made on a map image being displayed.

Through this operation, the user of the terminal device 1 is able toknow the location where people are gathering.

To realize such a system operation, the terminal device 1 transmits atleast current position information to the server device 70 regularly,for example, as current condition information. Depending on the case,the terminal device 1 also transmits biometric information or motioninformation together with position information.

Also, the terminal device 1 can notify the user of crowd information byreceiving crowd information from the server device 70, and making adisplay based on the crowd information. Crowd information basicallyrefers to information indicating that a large number of people aregathering at a given position (location). On the basis of the crowdinformation, the terminal device 1 makes such a display as to indicate alocation whether many people are gathering on a map image.

Basically, a system made up of the terminal device 1 and the serverdevice 70 may be assumed as this embodiment. However, as a terminal forthe system, equipment configured as the terminal device 1A that is usedsimply for management of the crowd condition by the server device 70, orthe terminal device 1B that does not contribute to management of thecrowd condition but can receive an information provision service is alsoconceivable. Thus, the terminal devices 1A, 1B are illustrated as well.

The terminal device 1A is configured as equipment that performs anoperation of transmitting current condition information containingcurrent position information to the server device 70 but does not havethe function of receiving crowd information from the server device 70and making a display based on the crowd information.

Also, the terminal device B is configured as equipment that has thefunction of receiving crowd information from the server device 70 andmaking a display based on the crowd information but does notparticularly transmit current condition information to the server device70.

An example of the configuration of each terminal device 1, 1A, 1B willbe described later.

The terminal device 1, 1A, 1B may be configured as equipment having ashape and size suitable for mobile use and carried about by the user,such as a mobile telephone, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), or asmall personal computer. Further, the function of the terminal device 1,1A, 1B may be provided as a built-in function of a mobile telephone, aPDA, or a personal computer.

Also, the terminal device 1, 1A, 1B may be configured as, for example, aglasses-type, a headset-type, or the like that is worn on the head partof the user, or may be configured as a watch-type, a pendant-type, orthe like that is worn by the user.

The terminal device 1A may be configured as equipment of a smaller size,such as card-like equipment or an IC tag.

The terminal device 1B may not necessarily be mobile equipment but maybe equipment of a type placed at home or the like by the user, forexample, a desktop personal computer. Alternatively, the terminal device1B may be realized as a built-in function of a desktop personalcomputer.

The server device 70 serves as an information provision device thatprovides crowd information to the terminal device 1, 1B.

The server device 70 performs management of current position informationtransmitted from the terminal device 1, 1A, determines about how manypeople are gathering at each position, and manages the crowd conditionof people at each position. Also, on the basis of the crowd conditionmanagement, the server device 70 generates crowd information, andtransmits the crowd information to the terminal device 1, 1B.

Various examples of the network 60 are conceivable, such as theInternet, a mobile telephone communication network, a PHS communicationnetwork, an ad-hoc network, or LAN.

[2. Terminal Device Configuration]

An example of the terminal device 1, 1A, 1B will be described below.

First, FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of the terminaldevice 1.

The terminal device 1 has a system controller 10, a biometric sensorsection 11, a motion sensor section 12, a position detecting section 13,a display section 14, a date and time counting section 15, an operatingsection 16, a storage section 17, and a communicating section 18.

The system controller 10 is configured by a microcomputer including aCPU (Central Processing Unit), a ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM (RandomAccess Memory), a non-volatile memory section, and an interface section,for example. The system controller 10 serves as a control section thatcontrols the entire terminal device 1.

The system controller 10 controls individual sections within theterminal device 1 on the basis of an internal operation program, therebyexecuting necessary communicating operations, display operations basedon crowd information, and the like.

The biometric sensor section 11 detects the biometric information of theuser. Examples of such biometric information include pulse, heart rate,cardiographic signal, electromyogram, respiration (for example,respiratory speed, depth, and minute ventilation), perspiration, GSR(Galvanic Skin Response), blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation(SpO₂), skin surface temperature, brain waves (for example, informationof α waves, β waves, θ waves, and δ waves), blood flow change (bloodflow change of a brain blood flow, peripheral blood flow, or the like bynear-infrared spectrophotometry), body temperature, and state of theeyes (pupil state, movement of the eyes, blinking, or the like).

For example, to detect GSR (Galvanic Skin Response), body temperature,skin surface temperature, cardiographic response, electromyographicheart rate, pulse, blood flow, blood pressure, brain waves,perspiration, body temperature, and the like, a sensor that touches theskin of a subject may be used. For brain waves, a sensor that is worn onand touches the head part of the subject is used.

A sensor for detecting the state of the user's eyes can be formed by animage capturing section configured to capture the image of the eyes partof the user. In this case, an image analysis is performed with respectto the image of the eyes part of the user captured by the imagecapturing section, thereby detecting the line-of-sight direction, focallength, amount of opening of the pupils, fundus pattern, and opening andclosing of the eye lids, and the like. Alternatively, the sensor may beformed by a light emitting section that radiates light to the eyes partof the user, and a light receiving section that receives light reflectedfrom the eyes part. For example, it is also possible to detect thethickness of the user's crystalline lens from a received signal.

The biometric sensor section 11 outputs desired information on thedetection results of these sensors to the system controller 10.

The motion sensor section 12 detects user's motion information. Examplesof motion information include information indicating user's states suchas still/walking/running, information indicating motion states(vibration, jumping, walking/running rhythm, center of gravity, and thelike), and information indicating the movements of user's body elementssuch as the head, arms, feet, hands, and fingers.

These pieces of motion information can be detected by using anacceleration sensor, a gyro (angular velocity sensor), a vibrationsensor, or the like. That is, when an acceleration sensor or a gyro isprovided, for example, the movement of the whole body, the movement ofthe head part, the movement of the neck, the movement of the arm part,the movement of the leg part, and the like can be detected as signalscorresponding to movements of the user. Of course, to detect themovement of the arm part, the movement of the leg part, or the like, theacceleration sensor or the gyro may be worn on the user's arm or legpart.

The biometric sensor section 11 outputs information on the detectionresults of these sensors including the acceleration sensor to the systemcontroller 11.

The position detecting section 13 is configured as, for example, a GPSreceiving section. The GPS receiving section receives radio waves from aGPS (Global Positioning System) satellite, and outputslatitude/longitude information as current position information to thesystem controller 10.

It should be noted that as the position detecting section 13, WiFi(Wireless Fidelity) or a position information service provided by amobile telephone company may be used.

The date and time counting section 15 constantly perform a date and timecounting operation to count year, month, day, hour, minute, and second.

The operating section 16 is provided as an operating member such as akey or dial with which a user using the terminal device 1 performsvarious operations. A configuration is also possible in which a touchpanel is provided on the display section 14, and this is touch-operatedas the operating section 16.

For example, the operating section 16 allows a power on/off operation,display-related operations (for example, a display mode selection and adisplay adjusting operation), various setting operations, and the like.

The system controller 10 performs desired control processes on the basisof operation information from the operating section 16.

Since the terminal device 1 according to this embodiment includes thebiometric sensor section 11 and the motion sensor section 12, a user'sconscious behavior may be detected from biometric information/motioninformation detected by these sensor sections, and the system controller10 may regard this as operation input information.

For example, light tapping of the terminal device 1 by the user may bedetected by an acceleration sensor, vibration sensor, or the like of themotion sensor section 12, and this can be recognized by the systemcontroller 10 as an operation of the user.

Also, turning of the head, shaking of the neck, or the like by the usermay be detected by an acceleration sensor or angular velocity sensor,and this may be recognized by the system controller 10 as an operationof the user.

Also conceivable is an arrangement in which a movement of the user'seyes is detected by the biometric sensor section 11 and, for example, amovement of the eyes as user's conscious behaviors (line-of-sightdirection or blinking) is recognized as an operation input.

The communicating section 18 transmits/receives data to/from externalequipment. The communicating section 18 is networked in a wired orwireless manner, and communicates with the server device 70 via thenetwork 60 shown in FIG. 1.

The storage section 17 performs recording (saving) of various data andreproduction (reading) of recorded data on the basis of control of thesystem controller 10.

The storage section 17 may be configured by a solid-state memory such asa RAM or a flash memory, or may be configured by, for example, an HDD(Hard Disk Drive).

Also, the storage section 17 may not be a built-in recording medium butmay be configured as a recording/reproducing drive or the like adaptedto a portable recording medium, for example, a recording medium such asa memory card with a built-in solid-state memory, an optical disc, amagneto-optical disc, or a hologram memory.

Of course, both of a built-in type memory such as a solid-state memoryor HDD, and a recording/reproducing drive for a portable recordingmedium may be installed.

In the case of this embodiment, the storage section 17 includes storageareas specifically serving as a communication data storing section 17 a,a detected information accumulating section 17 b, and a map database 17c.

The communication data storing section 17 a is used for buffering orstoring of transmitted/received data in the communicating section 18.

The detected information accumulating section 17 b stores biometricinformation detected by the biometric sensor section 11, motioninformation detected by the motion sensor section 12, and positioninformation detected by the position detecting section 13. On the basisof control of the system controller 10, for example, the detectedinformation accumulating section 17 b is configured to store thesepieces of information at each fixed time interval, for example, togetherwith date and time information counted by the date and time countingsection 15. That is, user's biometric information/motioninformation/position information is recorded in the detected informationaccumulating section 17 b, and current condition information describedlater is generated on the basis of this recorded information.

In the map database 17 c, a map image for a map display, and other suchnecessary information are stored.

The display section 14 has, for example, a display panel section such asa liquid crystal panel or an organic EL panel, and a display drivesection that drives the display of the display panel section. Thedisplay drive section is configured by a pixel drive circuit fordisplaying supplied image data on the display panel section.

The pixel drive circuit applies drive signals based on image signals atpredetermined horizontal/vertical drive timings to individual pixelsarranged in matrix in the display panel section, thereby executing adisplay.

The display section 14 causes the display panel section to execute apredetermined display, on the basis of control of the system controller10. In this embodiment, in particular, by using map image data stored inthe map database 17 c, the system controller 10 causes the displaysection 14 to execute a map display, and further to execute a displaybased on crowd information received from the server device 70, on thedisplayed map image.

As described above, such a terminal device 1 is preferably configured asequipment that can be worn or carried by the user. In particular, toensure appropriate detection by the biometric sensor section 11 or themotion sensor section 12, although depending on the contents ofbiometric information to be detected, the terminal device 1 may beimplemented in such conceivable forms as a watch-type, a headset-type, acap-type, a helmet-type, a glove-type, and a piece of clothing withequipment built therein, particularly those which allow at least a part(the biometric sensor section 11) of the terminal device 1 to touch asection of the body of the subject appropriate for the information to bedetected, such as the skin or head part.

However, since it suffices that at least the biometric sensor section 11(or the motion sensor section 12 depending on the contents of motioninformation to be detected) be brought into intimate contact with thebody of the user, the terminal device 1 may be formed as two units asshown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 shows an example in which the terminal device 1 is configured byseparate units, a detection device section 2 and a display devicesection 3.

The detection device section 2 has the biometric sensor section 11, themotion sensor section 12, and a detected information transmittingsection 19.

The display device section 3 includes a detected information receivingsection 20, in addition to the system controller 10, the positiondetecting section 13, the display section 14, the date and time countingsection 15, the operating section 16, the storage section 17, and thecommunicating section 18.

The detected information receiving section 20 and the detectedinformation transmitting section 19 communicate with each other via, forexample, wireless or wired communication. In the case of wirelesscommunication, for example, a short-range wireless communication schemesuch as the Bluetooth may be employed, or an optical communicationscheme that performs data communication by optical pulse modulationusing visible light, invisible light, or the like may be employed. Ofcourse, a wireless communication scheme adapted to longer-rangecommunication or network communication may be employed as well.

In the case of the configuration shown in FIG. 3, biometric informationdetected by the biometric sensor section 11, and motion informationdetected by the motion sensor section 12 are transmitted from thedetected information transmitting section 19, and received by thedetected information receiving section 20.

The system controller 10 controls the display of character images on thebasis of the biometric information and motion information received bythe detected information receiving section 20.

In the case of the configuration shown in FIG. 3, it suffices that onlythe detection device section 2 can be made to touch a desired section ofthe user such as the skin or the head part, thereby making it possibleto reduce the burden on the user in wearing the terminal device 1. Inparticular, the detection device section 2 is of a simple configurationhaving the biometric sensor section 11, the motion sensor section 12,and the detected information transmitting section 19. Hence, thedetection device section 2 can be easily reduced in size and weight,thereby facilitating implementation as equipment that can be worn on adesired section of the body.

Although the display device section 3 may be configured as smalldedicated equipment carried by the user, an implementation is alsopossible in which the function as the display device section 3 is addedto mobile equipment such as a mobile telephone or a PDA (PersonalDigital Assistant).

FIG. 4 shows an example of the configuration of the terminal device 1Adescribed above.

The terminal device 1A is equipment that transmits current conditioninformation to the server device 70. As such, the terminal device 1A mayhave the system controller 10, the biometric sensor section 11, themotion sensor section 12, the position detecting section 13, the dateand time counting section 15, the storage section 17, and thecommunicating section 18.

The storage section 17 may have the detected information accumulatingsection 17 b that stores position information, biometric information,and motion information that are the contents of current conditioninformation.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the configuration of the terminal device 1Bdescribed above.

The terminal device 1B is equipment that receives crowd informationtransmitted from the server device 70, and performs a display based onthe crowd information. As such, the terminal device 1B may have thesystem controller 10, the position detecting section 13, the displaysection 14, the operating section 16, the storage section 17, and thecommunicating section 18.

The storage section 17 may have a communication data storing section 17a for saving received crowd information, and a map database 17 c for amap display.

It should be noted that position detection by the position detectingsection 13 is performed for displaying, upon display of a map image, forexample, the current self position on that map image.

While configuration examples of the terminal device 1, 1A, 1B have beendescribed above with reference to FIGS. 2, 3, 4, and 5, in actuality,various modifications of these configurations are possible.

That is, it may be understood that respective sections are provided asdeemed necessary in accordance with at least various operation examplesdescribed later, the structure of data to be communicated, and the like,and various omissions or additions are possible with respect to theconfigurations illustrated in the respective drawings mentioned above.

For example, the terminal device 1, 1A may be configured so as not toinclude the biometric sensor 11 and the motion sensor 12.

Also, the map database 17 c may not necessarily be provided in theterminal device 1, 1B. While the map database 17 c is provided forperforming a map display on the display section 14, if, for example, aconfiguration is adopted in which map drawing data is downloaded fromthe server device 70 at the time of map display, a map image display canbe performed even without providing the map database 17 c.

[3. Server Device Configuration]

Next, FIG. 6 shows an example of the configuration of the server device70.

As described above, the server device 70 is a device which, throughcommunication via the network 60, for example, captures currentcondition information transmitted from the terminal device 1 (or 1A;hereinafter omitted) to grasp the crowd condition at each position,generates crowd information indicating a location where people aregathering, and transmits the crowd information to the terminal device 1(or 1B; hereinafter omitted).

The server device 70 includes a server control section 72, a networkstorage section 71, a communicating section 73, a database managementsection 74, a head count management database 75, a registered userdatabase 76, a map database 77, and a position management database 78.

The server control section 72 controls operations necessary for theserver device 70. In particular, the server control section 72 performscontrol of network communications, control of processing at the timewhen current condition information is transmitted from the terminaldevice 1, control related to the transmission of crowd information tothe terminal device 1, and the like.

The network storage section 71 is implemented by, for example, an HDD,and is used for, for example, temporary saving of datatransmitted/received through communication with the terminal device 1via the network 60, saving of various kinds of necessary information,and the like.

The communicating section 73 performs data communications via thenetwork 60 with the terminal device 1.

The database management section 74 performs management of each of thehead count management database 75, the registered user database 76, themap database 77, and the position management database 78. That is, thedatabase management section 74 performs update processing, searchprocessing, read processing, and the like with respect to each database.

The head count management database 75 is a database that manages thecurrent head count at each position.

The head count management database 75 is of a structure shown in FIG.7A, for example. That is, in association with each of positions (P1, P2,P3 . . . ) on a map, the number of people currently present at thatposition is managed while being constantly updated. Also, as user IDs,pieces of identification information of people currently present areupdated and registered.

The positions P1, P2, P3 . . . as the units of management may each be asingle position indicated by a latitude/longitude, or may be a positioncorresponding to a place name or a district name. Further, the positionsP1, P2, P3 . . . may each be a position that is set by executing areadivision on the map. It suffices as long as a unit of “location” thatcan be determined by position information detected on the terminaldevice 1 side is set.

A user ID is identification information that is uniquely set for eachuser of the terminal device 1. This user ID may be a device IDindividually assigned to the terminal device 1.

As will be described later, at least a user ID and current positioninformation are transmitted from the terminal device 1 or 1A as currentcondition information. On the server device 70 side, the head countmanagement database 75 is updated every time current conditioninformation is received. For example, if a received user ID as currentcondition information is “UID1”, and position information indicates aposition corresponding to the position P1, on the head count managementdatabase 75, the user ID “UID1” is registered with respect to theposition P1. The current head count can be managed as the number ofregistered user IDs.

FIG. 7B shows another example of the structure of the head countmanagement database 75. While current head counts and user IDs aremanaged in association with positions (P1, P2, P3 . . . ) as in FIG. 7A,for example, further, to allow management of variations in head countfor each unit time of x minutes, the head count as of x minutes ago, thehead count as of 2x minutes ago, and the head count as of 3x minutes agoare registered as head count progress information.

By thus also leaving past head counts to some extent as registeredinformation, on the server device 70 side, changes in head count at eachposition can be grasped.

For example, in the example of FIG. 7B, for the position P1, a conditionin which the number of people is gradually increasing can be confirmed.Also, for the position P3, a condition in which the number of people isgradually decreasing can be confirmed.

The registered user database 76 is a database that manages informationon users registered for an information provision service according tothe system of this embodiment.

An example of the structure of the registered user database 76 is shownin, for example, FIG. 8.

In this example, on the registered user database 76, for example,attribute registration information informed by the user in advance, andthe latest updated information indicating the latest condition areregistered.

On the registered user database 76, attribute registration informationand the latest updated information are registered in association witheach individual user identified by a user ID.

First, the attribute registration information refers to informationinformed by the user in advance for the enjoyment of a service accordingto the system of this embodiment. For example, by transmitting theattribute registration information from the terminal device 1 at thetime of enjoyment of the service, the attribute registration informationis registered onto the registered user database 76.

Assumed as the contents of the attribute registration information areage, sex, hobby/preference information UPD, and the like. Conceivableexamples of the hobby/preference information UPD include descriptions ofhobby genres or the like, such as music, sports, gourmet, and shopping,and descriptions representing further subdivisions of the abovedescriptions (in the case of music, for example, music genres such asrock and classical).

The latest updated information associated with each user ID refers toinformation informed as current condition information transmitted fromthe terminal device 1. That is, the latest updated information isinformation that is updated every time current condition information istransmitted, and includes, for example, date and time TM, currentposition, biometric information BD, motion information PD, and stay timeSTM.

While an example of the contents of current condition informationtransmitted from the terminal device 1 will be described later withreference to FIGS. 11A to 11D, the current condition informationcontains at least a user ID, date and time information, and positioninformation. Thus, when current condition information has beentransmitted, on the registered user database 76, at least descriptionsof the date and time TM and current position are updated. For example,when current condition information for a user ID=UID1 has beentransmitted from a given terminal device 1, date and time and positionare updated as registration information for the user ID=UID1 on theregistered user database 76.

As position information, for example, the same position information asthe positions P1, P2 . . . shown in the head count management database75 in FIGS. 7A and 7B is stored. For example, if position information(latitude/longitude) that has been transmitted as current conditioninformation corresponds to the position P3 on the head count managementdatabase 75, “P3” is registered as position information in the latestupdated information on the registered user database 76.

Also, if biometric information or motion information is contained in thecurrent condition information, on the registered user database 76,descriptions of the biometric information BD or the motion informationPD are also updated.

The latest updated information containing the date and time TM,position, biometric information BD, and motion information PD is usedfor managing the latest conditions with respect to individual users.

The stay time STM is information indicating the period of time for whicha user has been staying at the current location. For example, if thecurrent position of a user with a user ID=UID1 is the position P3 asshown in the drawing, the period of time for which the user has beenstaying at the position P3 is indicated as the stay time STM.

For example, when updating the latest updated information upon receivingthe current condition information, it is checked whether or not there isa change in position information, and if there is no change, thedifference in time between the date and time stored up to that point,and the date and time indicated by the current condition informationthis time is added to the value of the stay time STM stored up to thatpoint, thereby making it possible to compute the stay time at the sameposition up to the current time. Of course, if the position indicated bythe current condition information this time differs from the positionstored up to that point, the stay time STM may simply be reset to zero.

With the registered user database 76 as shown in FIG. 8, the serverdevice 70 can manage and grasp such information as attributes (age, sex,and hobby/preference) related to a user of each terminal device 1, andthe latest conditions, including where the user is present, in whatbiometric condition or motion condition, and further how long the userhas been staying at the current location, as of the current time (pointin time close to the current time).

The map database 77 of the configuration shown in FIG. 6 stores mapinformation with reference to a latitude/longitude. For example, the mapdatabase 77 is referenced during the process of associating alatitude/longitude with the position P1, P2, . . . used in the headcount management database 75 and the registered user database 76, or atthe time of creating the position management database 78 describedbelow.

On the position management database 78, position attribute ZD, averagecrowd level, crowd inevitability level, and position-associated servicedata PSD are registered as information with respect to each of thepositions P1, P2, . . . used in the head count management database 75and the registered user database 76.

The position attribute ZD indicates an attribute with respect to eachposition. The position attribute ZD is, for example, a place name, anarea name, a road name, or a building/facility name, or the kind type ofa building, facility, or location. Assumed as the kind type here in akind type such as store, stadium, park, farm, or station.

The average crowd level is information indicating about how many peoplenormally gather at that position, as represented by n levels.

For example, the number of people who are present at a position onaverage differs depending on whether the position corresponds to an areawith a large population or a small population, or whether the positioncorresponds to a residential area or a downtown area. For example, thereare an extremely large number of people at all times at a given positionPx in a downtown area such as Shinjuku or Shibuya in Tokyo, whereas theaverage number of people present at a position Py in a downtown area ofa provincial city is not so large. Also, in the case of a farmingvillage or the like, there are situations when hardly anyone is present,even at a position Pz in front of a station, for example.

The system of this embodiment provides a service of presenting alocation where people are gathering to the user of the terminal device1. In this regard, to present a “location where people are gathering” tothe user as a “location where some interesting incident is happening”,it is necessary to extract a location where more people are gatheringthan usual. For example, provided that an average of about 100 peopleare present daily at the given position Px in the Shibuya ward, even ifa gathering of 100 people is detected, it may be difficult to presumethat the position Px indicates a “location where some interestingincident is happening”. At such a location, it is appropriate to raisethe criterion for determining a “location where some interestingincident is happening” to a larger head count.

On the other hand, hardly anyone is present normally in a meeting placeat the position Pz in front of a station in a farming village. Hence, agathering of about 10 people is enough to presume that some incident ishappening at that position.

In this way, when determining whether or not more people than usual aregathering at a location whether people are gathering, it is appropriateto make the determination with reference to the average number of peoplewho are normally present.

Accordingly, the average number of people present in normal situationsis set and managed as the average crowd level on the position managementdatabase, and the determination as to whether or not people aregathering is made in accordance with the level.

The crowd inevitability level is set and registered as a levelindicating whether people frequently gather at a location in question.

The system according to this embodiment places more emphasis onproviding information about a location where an accidental incidentseems to have occurred, than providing information about an event or thelike that is planned and publicly advertised in advance.

For example, when an athletic event is being held in a sports stadium,or when a performance is being staged in a live performance club, aconcert hall, a theater, or the like, it can be said that people areinevitably gathering at that location. That is, it can be said that inthe case of, for example, a stadium or a live performance club, there isa high inevitability of people gathering there.

On the other hand, unlike such facilities where people naturally gather,there are locations where the inevitability of people gathering there isnot particularly great, such as a given street, streetcorner, or park.When people are gathering at such a location, it can be presumed thatsome accidental incident, or an unadvertised event such as a liveguerrilla performance is happening at that location.

Accordingly, with respect to each of the positions P1, P2 . . . , theinevitability of people's gathering is set in m levels as crowdinevitability levels and registered in advance. Thus, upon detectingthat people are gathering at a given position, this crowd inevitabilitylevel is referred to and can be used in determining whether or not thegathering of people is inevitable or accidental.

The position-associated service data PSD is additional informationassociated with each position. For example, for the position Pxcorresponding to a business facility such as a store, pieces ofinformation such as a store's advertisement, business information,image, homepage address, addles link, and discount information areregistered as the position-associated service data PSD with respect tothat position Px. Further, data such as a photographic image or commentas user-posted data with respect to that position may be also registeredas the position-associated service data PSD.

In this way, on the position management database 78, information withrespect to each of the positions P1, P2 . . . is registered in advanceso that this information can be referred to when generating crowdinformation to be notified to the user of the terminal device 1.

[4. Transmission of Current Condition Information from Terminal Deviceto Server Device]

A description will now be given of an example of the operation of aninformation provision system made up of the terminal device 1 (1A, 1B)and the server device 70 described above.

First, a description will be given here of an operation of communicatingcurrent condition information performed for managing a head count ateach position in the server device 70.

As described above, the terminal device 1 or the terminal device 1Acarried by the user transmits current condition information to theserver device 70.

For example, FIG. 10 shows processing in a case where the terminaldevice 1 (or 1A) transmits current condition information to the serverdevice 70 automatically at periodic timing.

The system controller 10 of the terminal device 1 (or 1A) periodicallyexecutes the processing shown on the left side of FIG. 10. In responseto this, the server control section 72 of the server device 70 performsthe processing shown on the right side of FIG. 10.

First, in step F101, the system controller 10 of the terminal device 1monitors the transmission timing. For example, every fixed time intervalsuch as 30 seconds, 1 minute, or several minutes is set as thetransmission timing, and the system controller 10 determines whether ornot this transmission timing is reached, through time counting.

When the transmission timing is reached, the system controller 10proceeds to step F102, where the system controller 10 generates currentcondition information.

It should be noted that in the terminal device 1, the system controller10 constantly executes an operation of storing detected values ofbiometric information detected by the biometric sensor section 11, andmotion information detected by the motion sensor section 12, into thedetected information accumulating section 17 b of the storage section17. Also, the system controller 10 also stores position information (forexample, a latitude/longitude) detected by the position detectingsection 13 into the detected information accumulating section 17 b.

Alternatively, the system controller 10 may store detected valuesrespectively detected by the biometric sensor section 11, the motionsensor section 12, and the position detecting section 13 into thedetected information accumulating section 17 b, upon proceeding to stepF102 after the transmission timing is reached.

In any case, upon proceeding to step F102 after the transmission timingis reached, the system controller 10 generates current conditioninformation by using the latest detected information thus stored intothe detected information accumulating section 17 b.

FIGS. 11A to 11D each show an example of the contents of generatedcurrent condition information.

FIG. 11A shows an example in which current condition informationincludes a current condition information header, a user ID, date andtime information, and position information.

FIG. 11B shows an example in which current condition informationincludes a current condition information header, a user ID, date andtime information, position information, biometric information, andmotion information.

FIG. 11C shows an example in which current condition informationincludes a current condition information header, a user ID, date andtime information, position information, and biometric information.

FIG. 11D shows an example in which current condition informationincludes a current condition information header, a user ID, date andtime information, position information, and motion information.

While there are other conceivable examples of the contents of currentcondition information, what kinds of information are included as thecontents of current condition information depends on the systemoperation mode or the configuration of the terminal device 1.

The current condition information header contains basic matters aboutcurrent condition information to be transmitted, such as anidentification code for identifying information as being currentcondition information, synchronizing signal, data size, and informationencoding format.

The user ID is user identification information uniquely assigned to eachuser. This may be identification information uniquely assigned to theterminal device 1.

The date and time information is information of the current year, month,day, hour, minute, and second. The system controller 10 adds the valueof the current date and time counted by the date ad time countingsection 15 to this current condition information.

The position information is position information (latitude/longitude)that has been detected by the position detecting section 13 and capturedby the detected information accumulating section 17 b.

While current condition information contains at least the pieces ofinformation as shown in FIG. 11A, if the biometric sensor section 11 andthe motion sensor section 12 are included as shown in FIGS. 2, 3, and 4,biometric information and motion information may be contained in thecurrent condition information as shown in FIGS. 11B, 11C, and 11D.

Biometric information may be, for example, the very detected values ofheart rate, pulse, brain waves, blood pressure, galvanic skin response,and the like, but may also contain psychological information for theuser inferred from these detected values of biometric information.

For example, user's emotions (happy, amused, delighted, sad, scared,peaceful, feeling nostalgic, moved, startled, thrilled, nervous, and thelike) can be inferred on the basis of fluctuations in the numeric valuesof biometric information due to a state of feeling nervous, excited,comfortable, or the like. This is because, for example, the detectedvalues of heart rate, pulse, pulse, brain waves, blood pressure, andgalvanic skin response, and the like fluctuate due to psychologicalchanges. For example, whether or not the user is excited can bedetermined from the heart rate and respiratory information.

Further, the condition of the user (calm, in a hurry, or the like) canbe determined also by the state of pupils and line-of-sight movements asdetected by a visual sensor.

Further, movements of the user's body detected by the motion sensorsection 12 may be used for the determination of the user's condition.For example, when the pulse or the like becomes faster, this may be dueto nervousness or thrill, or this may be due to a user's motion such asrunning. For this determination, reference can be also made toinformation of an acceleration sensor or the like.

The system controller 10 can make the thus determined psychologicalinformation be included in the current condition information as a pieceof biometric information.

It should be noted that inference of a psychological state takes acertain amount of time, and in some cases, it may be difficult toproperly infer a psychological state by simply capturing informationdetected information from the biometric sensor section 11 temporarily.That is, detected information from the biometric sensor section 11 as asignal obtained from a living body changes in value from moment tomoment. Thus, by simply looking at a value at a given instant, it isdifficult to determine what psychological state the value indicates.Also, due to continuous changes in emotion, it may be better in somecases to change the threshold used for determination of a psychologicalstate.

Accordingly, it is also appropriate to determine psychology by referringto changes in biometric information/motion information from a certainpoint in the past. That is, it is also appropriate to determinepsychology by examining, in time series, the biometric informationstored in the detected information accumulating section 17 b, andreferring to biometric information from a certain point in the past (forexample, from several minutes ago).

After the system controller 10 generates the current conditioninformation as illustrated in FIGS. 11A to 11B in step F102, in stepF103, the system controller 10 causes the current condition informationto be transmitted from the communicating section 18 to the server device70.

On the terminal device 1 side, the processing of steps S102 and F103mentioned above is performed at every periodic transmission timing.

It should be noted that the processing of steps S102 and F103 may notnecessarily be performed periodically but may be performed in responseto some trigger, such as a user's operation, the ambient environment, ora change in current position.

On the server device 70 side, the server control section 72 performs theprocessing of steps F201, F202, and F203.

That is, once current condition information from a given terminal device1 is received by the communicating section 73, the server controlsection 72 proceeds from step F201 to step F202, and captures thecontents of the received and decoded current condition information ontothe network storage section 71.

Then, in step F203, the server control section 72 transfers necessaryinformation contained in the captured current condition information, tothe database management section 74, and instructs database updating.

The database management section 74 performs an updating process withrespect to the head count management database 75 and the registered userdatabase 76 in the manner as described below.

First, as for the head count management database 75, an updating processis performed by referring to the position information and user IDs inthe received current condition information.

An example of the updating process for the head count managementdatabase 75 is shown in FIG. 12.

In step F211, the database management section 74 determines to which ofthe positions P1, P2 . . . managed on the head count management database75 the position information contained in received current conditioninformation, for example, latitude/longitude information corresponds.The thus determined position is taken as P(x).

Of course, the above-mentioned processing may be performed as it is ifthe positions P1, P2 . . . on the head count management database 75 aredirectly expressed as the values of latitude/longitude. However, if, forexample, the fineness of a detected position as latitude/longitude andthe range of each of the positions P1, P2 . . . do not match, a positionP on the management database corresponding to the longitude/latitude isdetermined.

Next, in step F212, the database management section 74 searches the headcount management database 75 to determine whether or not a user ID thatmatches a user ID included in the received current condition informationis registered on the head count management database 75. As shown inFIGS. 7A and 7B, on the head count management database 75, peoplecurrently present are registered by their user IDs with respect to eachof the positions P1, P2 . . . , so the database management section 74determines whether or not the received user ID exists among theseregistered user IDs.

If no matching user ID is found, the database management section 74proceeds from step F213 to step F218, and adds the received user ID as auser ID with respect to the position P(x), and increments the value ofthe current head count for the position P(x) by 1.

If a matching user ID is found, the database management section 74proceeds from step F213 to step F214, and sets, from among the positionsP1, P2 . . . , a position with respect to which the retrieved user ID isregistered, as a position P (y).

Then, in step F215, the database management section 74 determineswhether or not the position P(x)=the position P(y). If the positionP(x)=the position P(y), this means that there is no change from thecurrently registered contents. That is, the user of the terminal device1 that transmitted the current condition information received this timeis present at the same position as that when the user transmittedcurrent condition information last time.

Since no updating is necessary in this case, the processing isterminated as it is.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step F215 that the positionP(x)=the position P(y) does not hold, this means that the user has movedto a position different from that at the time of the last transmissionof current condition information, so the database management section 74proceeds to step F216 and performs updating.

First, in step F216, the database management section 74 deletes thecorresponding user ID registered with respect to the position P(y).Also, the database management section 74 decrements the value of thecurrent head count with respect to the position P(y) by 1.

In step F217, the database management section 74 adds the received userID as a user ID with respect to the position P(x), and increments thevalue of the current head count for the position P(x) by 1.

The database management section 74 performs the above-mentionedprocessing every time current condition information is received, therebymaking it possible for the head count management database 75 to graspthe head count with respect to each of the positions P1, P2 . . . , andusers who are present there.

The database management section 74 also performs an updating process forthe registered user database 76 on the basis of an instruction from theserver control section 72. This updating process is shown in FIG. 13.

First, in step F221, the database management section 74 searches theregistered user database 76 for a received user ID, and determineswhether or not the received user ID has already been registered.

If a user ID included in received current condition information is auser ID that has already been registered on the registered user database76, the database management section 74 proceeds from step F222 to stepF223 where, first, the database management section 74 reads the date andtime TM, position P(z), and stay time STM in the latest updatedinformation registered with respect to that user ID.

Then, the database management section 74 determines whether or not theread position P(z) matches the position P(x) determined in step F211 ofFIG. 12 mentioned above.

That is, as in step F215 of FIG. 12 mentioned above, this determinationis made for determining whether or not the user is present at the sameposition as that at the time of the last transmission of currentcondition information.

In the above-mentioned example, it is determined in the processing ofsteps F221 to F224 whether or not a user ID has been registered, andwhether or not the user's position has moved. However, if the processingof FIG. 12 has already been executed, these determinations have alreadybeen made in the database management section 74, so these determinationprocesses can be omitted.

If it is determined that the user is present at the same position asthat at the time of the last transmission of current conditioninformation, the database management section 74 proceeds to step F225,and computes the stay time. This may be performed by adding the timedifference between the date and time indicated by the current conditioninformation received this time, and the registered date and time TM, tothe registered value of stay time STM. That is, the stay time STM is setas follows.

Stay time STM=stay time STM+(date and time included in current conditioninformation−date and time TM)

On the other hand, if it is determined that the user has moved to aposition different from that at the time of the last transmission ofcurrent condition information, the database management section 74proceeds to step F226, and sets the stay time STM=0.

Upon setting the stay time STM in this way, the database managementsection 74 performs an updating process in step F227.

That is, in the latest update information as the slot for thecorresponding user ID on the registered user database 76, the value ofthe date and time TM is rewritten to the value of the date and timeindicated by the received current condition information.

Also, the value of the position is set to the position P (x).

Also, the value of the stay time STM is rewritten to the value obtainedby step F225 or F226 mentioned above.

Also, if biometric information and motion information are included inthe received current condition information, the biometric information BDand the motion information PD on the registered user database 76 arerewritten to the received contents.

In step F222, if a user ID included in the received current conditioninformation is a user ID that has not been registered on the registereduser database 76, the database management section 74 proceeds from stepF222 to step F228, and provides a new slot for performing registrationwith respect to the user ID received this time. Then, in step F229, thedatabase management section 74 writes the date and time TM, position,biometric information BD, motion information PD, and stay time STM asthe latest updated information into the slot. As for the date and timeTM, biometric information BD, and motion information PD, values includedin the contents of the received current condition information arewritten. The position is set as the position P(x) mentioned above. Thestay time STM may be set to “0”.

Through the above-mentioned processing, for example, the databasemanagement section 74 performs updating of the registered user database76 in accordance with reception of current condition information.

Database updating is performed in the processing of FIGS. 12 and 13 dueto the instruction from the server control section 72 in step F203 ofFIG. 10 mentioned above. On the server device 70 side, current conditioninformation is successively sent from a large number of terminal devices1. Every time such current condition information is received, theabove-mentioned database updating is performed, thereby making itpossible to manage the conditions of a larger number of users on theserver device 70 side.

In particular, on the head count management database 75, the currenthead count for each of the positions P1, P2 . . . , and information onpeople present at that position can be managed.

Further, with the latest updated information on the registered userdatabase 76, the current position, stay time, biometric information, andmotion information can be grasped for each user.

[5. Determination of Head Count Transition in Server Device]

As an example of the head count management database 75, an example ofregistering head count progress information (for example, the head countas of x minutes ago, the head count as of 2x minutes ago . . . ) hasbeen described above with reference to FIG. 7B.

In the case of such a database structure, it is necessary to update thehead count progress information through the process as shown in FIG. 14at each unit time interval.

For example, upon counting the elapse of a unit time (x minutes) in stepF210 of FIG. 14, in step F211, the server control section 72 instructsthe database management section 74 to execute updating of the head countprogress information.

As an example of the updating process performed by the databasemanagement section 74, the value of the head count as of 3x minutes agomay be updated to the value of the head count as of 2x minutes ago, thevalue of the head count as of 2x minutes ago may be updated to the valueof the head count as of 1x minutes ago, and the value of the head countas of 1x minutes ago may be updated to the value of the current headcount.

In this way, the condition of the head count for each unit time of xminutes can be managed on the head count management database 75, andchanges in head count with respect to each of the positions P1, P2 . . .can be grasped on the server device 70 side.

[6. Operation Example I for Display of Crowd Information]

Since the current head count with respect to each of the positions P1,P2 . . . is managed on the server device 70 side as mentioned above, itis possible to provide information about a “position where people aregathering” to the terminal device 1 or the terminal device 1B.

Now, a description will be given of an operation in which the serverdevice 70 provides crowd information containing information about a“position where people are gathering”, to the terminal device 1 (or 1B).

FIG. 15 shows processing of the system controller 10 of the terminaldevice 1, and processing of the server control section 72 of the serverdevice 70, at the time of communication of crowd information.

FIG. 15 shows a processing example in which the server device 70transmits crowd information in response to a request from the terminaldevice 1.

When wishing to see the display of a location where people are gatheringon a map image, the user makes a predetermined display request operationthrough the operating section 16, for example.

Upon detecting the display request operation, the system controller 10proceeds from step F301 to step F302 and generates request information,and causes the request information to be transmitted from thecommunicating section 18 to the server device 70.

Examples of the configuration of request information are shown in FIGS.16A to 16D. In this case, the system controller 10 generates requestinformation of a structure as shown in FIG. 16A or 16B for transmission.

FIG. 16A shows an example of request information made up of a requestinformation header, and a user ID.

FIG. 16B shows an example of request information made up of a requestinformation header, a user ID, and position information.

It should be noted that FIGS. 16C and 16D each show an example ofrequest information including extraction criterion information, and thisexample will be described later.

The request information header includes basic matters about currentcondition information to be transmitted, such as an identification codefor identifying information as being request information, synchronizingsignal, data size, and information encoding format.

Request information is generated by adding a user ID, or a user ID andposition information to the request information header. In a case hereposition information is added, position information detected by theposition detecting section 13 as of the time of generation of thisrequest information, or the latest position information that has beencaptured by the detected information accumulating section 17 b as ofthis time may be used.

On the server device 70 side, the processing of steps F401 to F404 isperformed in response to request information from the terminal device 1.

When the communicating section 73 receives request information from agiven terminal device 1, the server control section 72 proceeds fromstep F401 to step F402, and instructs the database management section 74to perform a search.

In this case, the database management section 74 is instructed to searchfor a “location where people are gathering”.

The database management section 74 extracts a location where people arecurrently gathering from the head count management database 75.

As for the method of extraction processing at this time, various methodssuch as (s1) to (s6) below are conceivable.

(s1) On the head count management database 75, a position P(x) where thecurrent head count is larger than a predetermined reference head count Mis extracted.

This is a method of extracting a location where the current head countis equal to or larger than the reference head count M (for example, M=20people), simply on the basis of the value of the current head count onthe head count management database 75.

(s2) On the head count management database 75, a position P(x) where thecurrent head count is larger than a predetermined reference head count Mis extracted, but the reference head count M is varied in accordancewith the average crowd level at each position.

As already described above, if the determination as to whether or notpeople are gathering is made by simply comparing a fixed reference headcount M and the current head count against each other, a district wheremany people are usually present is constantly determined as a locationwhere people are gathering, whereas in a location where hardly anyone isusually present usually, even when several people are gatheringunusually, it is determined that people are not gathering at thatlocation. This is not very appropriate in the case of categorizing alocation where people are gathering as a location where an accidentalincident is happening, an interesting location, or the like.

Accordingly, for each of the positions P1, P2 . . . , the reference headcount M is varied in accordance with the average crowd level registeredon the position management database 78.

For example, the determination criterion is varied for each location insuch a way that the reference head count M=5 people for locations wherenot many people are present, the reference head count M=20 people fordowntown areas of provincial cities, and the reference head count M=50people for downtown areas of big cities.

In this way, a “location where many people are gathering” can beaccurately extracted.

(s3) On the head count management database 75, a position P(x) where thedegree of increase in head count (amount of change in head count) isequal to or larger than a predetermined reference amount of change isextracted. For example, if, for example, the head count managementdatabase 75 is configured as shown in FIG. 7B, changes in head count canbe determined for each position. Accordingly, an arrangement isconceivable in which, for example, the head count as of a predeterminedperiod of time ago and the current head count are compared against eachother, and a location where the number of increase or the rate ofincrease in count exceeds a reference number of increase or a referencerate of increase. That is, a “location where people are beginning togather” can be extracted.

(s4) As in (s3) mentioned above, the head count as of a predeterminedperiod of time ago and the current head count are compared against eachother to extract a location where the number of increase or the rate ofincrease in count exceeds a reference number of increase or a referencerate of increase, but the reference number of increase or the referencerate of increase is varied in accordance with the average crowd levelregistered on the position management database 78. That is, a “locationwhere people are beginning to gather” is determined and extracted inaccordance with the normal number of people present at each position.

(s5) A location where the current head count is larger than apredetermined reference head count M, and the number of increase or rateof increase in head count exceeds a reference number of count or areference rate of increase is extracted. That is, a location where theabsolute level of the current head count is large and people arecurrently beginning to gather is extracted.

(s6) The extraction method is the same as that of (s5) mentioned above,except for varying one or both of the reference head count M and thereference number of increase (or the reference rate of increase) inaccordance with the average crowd level registered on the positionmanagement database 78. That is, while a location where the absolutelevel of the current head count is large and people are currentlybeginning to gather is extracted, further, the number of people normallypresent at each position is also taken into account.

As described above, while various methods are conceivable as the methodof extraction processing for a “location where people are gathering”, instep F402, a position P(s) as a “location where people are gathering” isextracted from among the positions P1, P2 . . . registered on the headcount management database 75 by one of these extraction methods.

Subsequently, in step F403, the server control section 72 receives fromthe database management section 74 extraction result information as alocation where people are gathering, and generates crowd information.

Examples of the contents of crowd information are shown in FIGS. 17A to17F.

As shown in FIG. 17A, crowd information includes, for example, a crowdinformation header, and one or a plurality of data units as crowdposition information added subsequent to the crowd information header.

The crowd information header includes basic matters about currentcondition information to be transmitted, such as an identification codefor identifying information as being crowd information, synchronizingsignal, data size, information encoding format, and the number of dataunits of crowd position information to be added.

A single piece of crowd position information is a data unitcorresponding to a single extracted position.

FIG. 17B shows an example in which a single piece of crowd positioninformation is made up of only position information.

FIG. 17C shows an example in which a single piece of crowd positioninformation is made up of position information and current head count.

FIG. 17D shows an example in which a single piece of crowd positioninformation is made up of position information, current head count, andcrowd inevitability level.

FIG. 17E shows an example in which a single piece of crowd positioninformation is made up of position information, current head count, andextraction criterion.

FIG. 17F shows an example in which a single piece of crowd positioninformation is made up of position information, current head count,extraction criterion, position attribute, and position-associatedservice data.

Of course, other than those mentioned above, various other combinationsof the contents are conceivable.

In the case of crowd position information described above, the positioninformation represents information that indicates the position P(s),which is a location where people are gathering and is extracted from thehead count management database 75, by its latitude/longitude, forexample.

The current head count represents the registered value of current headcount for the extracted position P(s). The value of the number ofincrease in head count or rate of increase in head count may be includedas well.

The crowd inevitability level, position attribute, andposition-associated service data each represent the informationregistered on the position management database 78 described above withreference to FIG. 9.

The extraction criterion represents data of some criterion used in acase where filtering (narrowing) is performed by that criterion whenextracting the position P(s) as a location where people are gathering.The extraction criterion will be described later.

Such crowd position information is generated with respect to a singleextracted position P(s). Accordingly, if n positions P(s) are extractedas locations where people are gathering, this results in a data formatas shown in FIG. 17A in which n pieces of crowd position information aregenerated and placed subsequent to the crowd information header.

If not even a single position P(s) is extracted as a location wherepeople are gathering, information indicating that the number of units ofcrowd position information=0 may be placed in the crowd informationheader, and no crowd position information may be added, or a data unitas dummy crowd position information may be added.

Upon generating the above-mentioned crowd information in step F403, instep F404, the server control section 74 causes the crowd information tobe transmitted from the communicating section 73 to the terminal device1 that has transmitted request information.

After causing request information to be transmitted in step F302, instep F303, the system controller 10 of the terminal device 1 waits forthe reception of crowd information from the server device 70.

Upon receiving crowd information, the system controller 10 proceeds tostep F304, and causes the contents of the crowd information to be storedinto the communication data storing section 17 a of the storage section17. Then, by using the contents of the crowd information, that is, thecontents of each piece of crowd position information included in thecrowd information, the system controller 10 generates display data fornotification display of a location where people are gathering.

Thereafter, in step F305, the system controller 10 causes a map image tobe displayed on the display section 14 by using map drawing data storedin the map database 71 c, and performs control so that display data as anotification display of a location where people are gathering isdisplayed so as to be superimposed on the map image.

Through the above-mentioned operations, the user of the terminal device1 can see a display showing a location where people are gathering, on amap image displayed on the display section 14.

[7. Operation Example II for Display of Crowd Information]

Next, an operation example II for display of crowd information will bedescribed with reference to FIG. 18. In this example, the user canspecify not only a criterion for a location where people are gathering,but also what kind of people are gathering.

When wishing to see the display of a location where people are gatheringon a map image, the user of the terminal device 1 makes a predeterminedrequest operation through the operating section 16, for example.

In response to the display request operation, the system controller 10proceeds from step F311 to F312, where the system controller 10generates extraction criterion information.

For example, on the display section 14, a display asking the user toselect an extraction criterion is made, thus urging the user to make aninput. For example, the user may be allowed to arbitrarily select an agecriterion such as “child”, “adult”, “20s”, “30 to 35”, or “50 and over”,sex such as “male” or “female”, or a hobby/preference criterion such as“person who likes music” or “person who likes shopping”.

Then, in accordance with the user's selection input, information as anextraction criterion is generated.

Upon generating the extraction criterion information, the systemcontroller 10 generates request information in step F313.

In this case, the request information is generated as informationincluding the extraction criterion information in addition to therequest information header and user ID, as shown in FIG. 16C.Alternatively, the request information is generated as informationincluding the extraction criterion information in addition to therequest information header, user ID, and position information, as shownin FIG. 16D.

Upon generating the request information, in step F314, the systemcontroller 10 causes the request information to be transmitted from thecommunicating section 18 to the server device 70.

On the server device 70 side, the processing of steps F411 to F414 isperformed in response to the request information from the terminaldevice 1.

When the communicating section 73 receives request information from agiven terminal device 1, the server control section 72 proceeds fromstep F411 to step F412, and instructs the database management section 74to perform a search.

In this case, the communicating section 73 instructs the databasemanagement section 74 to search for a “location where people aregathering”, and also perform filtering based on extraction criterioninformation included in the request information.

The database management section 74 extracts a location where peoplematching the extraction criterion information are currently gathering,by using the head count management database 75 or the registered userdatabase 76.

While various methods of extraction processing are conceivable, thefollowing processes (A) and (B) can be given as examples.

(A) First, from the head count management database 75, one or aplurality of positions P(s) each being a “location where people aregathering” are extracted by either of the above-described methods (s1)to (s6). Thereafter, with respect to each of user IDs registered foreach of the extracted positions P(s), registered attribute information(information about age, sex, and hobby/preference) on the registereduser database 76 is referred to, and users who do not match theextraction criterion are removed. By subtracting the number of theremoved users from the current head count on the head count managementdatabase 75, it is possible to know how many people who match theextraction criterion are present at the position P(s). By comparing thisnumber of people against a predetermined reference head count, it ispossible to determine whether or not each position is a “location wheremany people matching a specific extraction criterion are gathering”.

(B) User IDs that match extraction criterion information are extractedfrom the registered user database 76 by referring to registeredattribute information. Then, by referring to the latest updatedinformation with respect to the user IDs that match the criterion, thecurrent positions are summed up. The head count for each positionobtained as this summed result is compared against a predeterminedreference head count, thereby making it possible to determine whether ornot each position is a “location where many people matching a specificextraction criterion are gathering”.

In this way, for example, a position as a location where many people whomatch extraction criterion information are gathering can be extracted.

Subsequently, in step F413, the server control section 72 receivesextraction result information as a location where many people who matchthe extraction criterion information are gathering, from the databasemanagement section 74, and generates crowd information.

The contents of the crowd information are as described above withreference to FIGS. 17A to 17F. In this case, in particular, it is alsosuitable to add extraction criterion information to the crowd positioninformation as shown in FIGS. 17E and 17F.

Upon generating the above-mentioned crowd information in step F413, instep F414, the server control section 74 causes the crowd information tobe transmitted from the communicating section 73 to the terminal device1 that has transmitted request information.

After causing request information to be transmitted in step F314, instep F315, the system controller 10 of the terminal device 1 waits forthe reception of crowd information from the server device 70.

Upon receiving crowd information, the system controller 10 proceeds tostep F316, and causes the contents of the crowd information to be storedinto the communication data storing section 17 a of the storage section17. Then, by using the contents of the crowd information, that is, thecontents of each piece of crowd position information included in thecrowd information, the system controller 10 generates display data fornotification display of a location where people are gathering.

Thereafter, in step F317, the system controller 10 causes a map image tobe displayed on the display section 14 by using map drawing data storedin the map database 71 c, and performs control so that display data as anotification display of a location where people are gathering isdisplayed so as to be superimposed on the map image. Examples of thedisplay will be described later.

Through the above-mentioned operations, the user of the terminal device1 is able to know a location where people who match a specificextraction criterion are gathering on a map image, through display madeon the display section 14.

Since there are various conceivable examples of filtering performed onthe server device 70 side in accordance with extraction criterioninformation, these examples will be collectively described later.

[8. Operation Example III for Display of Crowd Information]

While the above-mentioned operation examples I and II are directed to acase in which the server device 70 transmits crowd information to theterminal device 1 in response to request information from the terminaldevice 1 side, a case is also conceivable in which the server device 70successively transmits crowd information to the terminal device 1. Thiswill be described below as an operation example III.

FIG. 19 shows, as the operation example III, processing of the systemcontroller 10 of the terminal device 1, and processing of the servercontrol section 72 of the server device 70.

In step F421, the server control section 72 monitors periodic checktiming, for example.

When the check timing is reached, the server control section 72 proceedsto step F422, and instructs the database management section 74 toperform a database check.

The database management section 74 examines the head count managementdatabase 75 in response to the instruction, and determines whether ornot a position where the degree of gathering of people has changedexists.

Whenever instructed to perform a database check, the database managementsection 74 may extract a “location where people are gathering” by aprocessing method as described above in either of (s1) to (s6), anddetermine whether or not there has been a change in condition, inaccordance with the extraction result.

For example, the database management section 74 stores a position (s)extracted as a “location where people are gathering” through theextraction processing at the last check timing. Then, at the currentcheck timing, a position where a number of people equal to a referencehead count or more are gathering is extracted, and it is determinedwhether or not one or plurality of such positions P(s) as the extractionresult match the one or plurality of positions P(s) obtained as the lastextraction result.

If there is any position that no longer qualifies as a “location wherepeople are gathering”, or any position that was not extracted last timebut is extracted as a “location where people are gathering” this time,then it is determined that there has been a change in condition.

If a result indicating that there has been no change in condition isreceived from the database management section 74, the server controlsection 72 returns the processing from step F423 to step F421, and waitsfor the next check timing.

On the other hand, if a result indicating that there has been a changein condition is received from the database management section 74, theserver control section 72 proceeds from step F423 to step F424, andgenerates crowd information. That is, the database management section 74receives position information obtained as the extraction resultperformed by the database management section 74 this time, and generatesthe crowd position information as shown in FIGS. 17B to 17F inassociation with each extracted position, thus generating the crowdinformation shown in FIG. 17A containing data units as such crowdposition information.

Then, in step F425, the server control section 72 causes the crowdinformation to be transmitted from the communicating section 73 to theterminal device 1. In this case, the crowd information may betransmitted not to a specific terminal device 1 but to a large number ofterminal devices 1.

In step F321, the system controller 10 of the terminal device 1 waitsfor the reception of crowd information from the server device 70.

Then, upon receiving crowd information, the system controller 10proceeds to step F322, and causes the contents of the crowd informationto be stored into the communication data storing section 17 a of thestorage section 17. Then, by using the contents of the crowdinformation, that is, the contents of each piece of crowd positioninformation included in the crowd information, the system controller 10generates display data for notification display of a location wherepeople are gathering.

Thereafter, in step F323, the system controller 10 causes a map image tobe displayed on the display section 14 by using map drawing data storedin the map database 71 c, and performs control so that display data as anotification display of a location where people are gathering isdisplayed so as to be superimposed on the map image. Examples of thedisplay will be described later.

Through the above-mentioned operations, the user of the terminal device1 is able to know a location where people are currently gathering on amap image displayed on the display section 14, without performing anyparticular operation, as crowd information is transmitted from theserver device 70 side.

[9. Example by Filtering Process by Extraction Criterion]

In the example described as the operation example II mentioned above,the user of the terminal device 1 specifies an extraction criterion suchas age, sex, hobby/preference, or the like, and filtering by theextraction criterion is performed on the server device 70 side toextract a location where people who match the extraction criterion aregathering.

On the other hand, as in the processing on the terminal device 1 sidedescribed as the processing on the left side of FIG. 15, it is alsopossible to perform filtering on the server device 70 without the userof the terminal device 1 particularly specifying an extractioncriterion. For example, an operation example is conceivable in which theprocessing of the terminal device 1 on the left side of FIG. 15 iscombined with the processing on the server device 70 side on the rightside of FIG. 18. Further, it is also conceivable to perform filtering inthe processing on the server device 70 side in FIG. 19.

Now, various specific examples of filtering process that can be appliedto these system operations will be described.

An example is conceivable in which the extraction on the server device70 side of a position P(s) as a location where people are gathering isperformed by filtering based on an area range.

For example, the user of the terminal device 1 specifies a specific arearange as extraction criterion information. For example, an area range isspecified by a place name, a district name, or specification of a rangeon a map image. The terminal device 1 adds the thus specified area rangeas extraction criterion information, and transmits request informationas shown in FIGS. 16C and 16D. On the server device 70 side, a search ismade for a location where people are gathering, with respect topositions within a range corresponding to the extraction criterion, andcrowd information is generated.

Further, it is also possible to set a specific area range as a targetsearch range with reference to the current position of the terminaldevice 1, without the user of the terminal device 1 specifying anextraction criterion.

Since the terminal device 1 places position information in requestinformation as shown in FIGS. 16B and 16D, on the server device 70 side,the position where the user of the terminal device 1 is currentlypresent can be located. Accordingly, on the server device 70 side, anarea range is set as, for example, being within a radius of x km, orwithin the same city, the same prefecture, or the like, with referenceto a position indicated by the position information (user's currentposition) included in the request information, which is taken as thecenter of the range. Then, a location where people are gathering issearched for with respect to positions within the area range, thusgenerating crowd information.

Even if position information is not included in the request information,the terminal device 1 (excluding the terminal device 1B in this case)has already transmitted current condition information and successivelynotified the server device 70 of the current position through theprocessing of FIG. 10. Therefore, on the server device 70 side, thecurrent user position can be confirmed by searching the registered userdatabase 76 with a user ID. In that case, with reference to theconfirmed user position, an area range is set as being within a radiusof x km, or within the same city or same prefecture or the like, and alocation where people are gathering is searched for with respect topositions within the area range, thus generating crowd information.

One of the aims of this embodiment is to inform the user of the terminaldevice of a location where people are gathering as a location where aninteresting incident is happening. However, this does not mean much ifthe position thus informed is too far for the user to reach. With thistaken into consideration, filtering based on an area range set withreference to the current user position is appropriate in the sense thatuseful information can be provided to the ser.

On the other hand, in a case where the user specifies an area range asan extraction criterion, the user can also know how many people aregathering in a far, remote area, irrespective of the position where theuser himself/herself is present. This proves advantageous in caseswhere, for example, the user wants to know how many people are gatheringin a given area, not for the purpose of going to that place but for thepurpose of a research or a study, for example, since the user can take alook at how many people are gathering at an arbitrary place,irrespective of the position of the user himself/herself.

It should be noted that when filtering based on an area range isperformed, the process of extracting a position as a location wherepeople are gathering can be also made more efficient.

Next, filtering based on a person's attribute is also conceivable.

As described above, the user of the terminal device 1 selects age, sex,or hobby/preference as extraction criterion information, and theterminal device 1 transmits request information as shown in FIGS. 16Cand 16D to which the specified extraction criterion information has beenadded. On the server device 70 side, a location where people matchingthe extraction criterion information are gathering is retrieved, andcrowd information is generated.

Thus, the user of the terminal device 1 is able to know information on alocation where people are gathering on the basis of an arbitrarycriterion, such as a location where women are gathering, a locationwhere children are gathering, or a location where people whose hobby ismusic are gathering.

While the example of FIG. 18 mentioned above is directed to a case inwhich the user of the terminal device 1 specifies an extractioncriterion, a case is also conceivable in which filtering based on aperson's attribute is performed automatically on the server device 70side. A user ID is included in request information from the terminaldevice 1, and on the server device 70 side, the registered user database76 manages registered attribute information of the user of the terminaldevice 1. That is, the age, sex, and hobby/preference of the user of theterminal device 1 can be determined. This means that on the serverdevice 70 side, with the age, sex, and hobby/preference of the user ofthe terminal device 1 as extraction criteria, a location where a largenumber of people with these attributes matching those of the user aregathering can be retrieved.

That is, the user of the terminal device 1 is able to know informationon a location where people of the same sex, age bracket, andhobby/preference as his/her own are gathering.

Further, filtering by stay time is also conceivable.

For example, as extraction criterion information, the user of theterminal device 1 inputs a condition such as the stay time being 10minutes or more. The terminal device 1 transmits request information asshown in FIGS. 16C and 16D to which the specified extraction criterioninformation has been added. On the server device 70 side, the stay timewith respect to each user ID is managed on the registered user database76, so user IDs with stay time of 10 minutes or more can be extracted.Then, a location where persons matching that extraction criterion aregathering is retrieved, and crowd information is generated.

Accordingly, the user of the terminal device 1 is able to knowinformation such as a location where people who have been staying therefor a long time are gathering.

Further, filtering by stay time may be performed on the server device 70side without the user of the terminal device 1 specifying an extractioncriterion. For example, there may be situations in which, although thereare many people in such places as an intersection on the main street ofa big city, or on the road near an event site, almost all of thosepeople are moving. Thus, it is also effective to perform filtering insuch a way that a person with short stay time is presumed to be notpresent at that location, and thus not included in the current headcount for that position.

Next, filtering by person's condition is conceivable.

Examples of a person's condition includes biometric information, apsychological condition inferred from the biometric information, and amovement state indicated by motion information.

For example, in accordance with an extraction criterion “person who isexcited”, on the server device 70 side, filtering can be performed toextract people whose heart rates are equal to or higher than apredetermined value by referring to biometric information on theregistered user database 76. Thus, as a result, the user of the terminaldevice 1 is able to know a location where excited people are gathering.

Likewise, by setting psychological states such as “person who isthrilled” and “person who is having fun” as extraction criteria, theuser is also able to know a location where people matching thesecriteria are gathering.

Setting these criteria is particularly effective in a case where theuser of the terminal device 1 wants to know a location where somethinginteresting is happening.

Also, by setting motion information such as “person who is running” asan extraction criterion, the user is able to know a location wherepeople matching this criterion are gathering.

Such biometric information and motion information may be specified bythe user or automatically set on the server side as well.

For example, the user of the terminal device 1 inputs a condition suchas “person who is excited” as extraction criterion information. Theterminal device 1 transmits request information as shown in FIGS. 16Cand 16D to which the specified extraction criterion information has beenadded. On the server device 70 side, a psychological state with respectto each user ID is managed on the registered user database 76, so userIDs corresponding to people who are excited can be extracted. Then, alocation where persons matching that extraction criterion are gatheringis retrieved, and crowd information is generated. Thus, the user of theterminal device 1 is able to know a location where people correspondingto an arbitrary biometric condition or the like, for example, people whoare excited, are gathering.

Further, a user ID is included in request information from the terminaldevice 1, and on the server device 70 side, the registered user database76 manages the latest updated information of the user of the terminaldevice 1. Thus, the current biometric information or motion informationof the user of the terminal device 1 can be determined. Accordingly, onthe server device 70 side, with a biometric condition, psychologicalcondition, or motion condition similar to that of the user of theterminal device 1 as an extraction criterion, a location where manypeople matching the criterion are gathering can be retrieved.

That is, the user of the terminal device 1 is able to know informationon a location where people who are in a condition or mood similar tohis/her own are gathering.

Further, filtering by distribution condition of persons is alsoconceivable.

For example, on the server device 70 side, the distribution of personscan be grasped with respect to each of the positions P1, P2 . . . , fromthe head count management database 75 or the registered user database76.

For example, it is possible to determine whether or not people who aregathering are concentrated in a specific age bracket, whether or notpeople of extremely diverse age brackets are gathering, and the like. Ofcourse, the male/female ratio can be also checked.

Accordingly, it is possible to extract a location where no specific agebracket is predominant but people of diverse age brackets are gathering,a location where the males and females are in about the same ratio, andthe like.

While examples of filtering have been described above, it is of coursepossible to perform filtering through a combination of these examples,and various other examples of filtering not described herein are alsoconceivable.

[10. Display Examples]

Through the above-mentioned operation examples I, II, and III fordisplay of crowd information, in the terminal device 1, a display basedon crowd information transmitted from the server device 70 side is made.

Now, examples of this display will be described.

FIGS. 20, 21, 22, and 23 each show an example of an image displayed on adisplay panel 14 a in the display section 14 of the terminal device 1 orthe terminal device 1B.

In the example of FIG. 20, a position corresponding to a “location wherepeople are gathering” is presented on a map image by a crowd mark 31.Also, as a self-position display 30, the current position of the user ofthe terminal device 1 is presented by a character image or the like.

When the terminal device 1 receives crowd information from the serverdevice 70, this means that the terminal device 1 has acquired positioninformation indicative of a location where people are gathering, fromcrowd position information corresponding to one or a plurality ofpositions included in the crowd information. Thus, the system controller10 can perform a map display on the basis of map drawing data read fromthe map database 17 c, and can also cause the crowd mark 31 to bedisplayed at a point on a map indicated by the position information asshown in FIG. 20.

By performing a display in this way, the user of the terminal device 1is able to know a location where people are gathering.

Further, through the self-position display 30 for the terminal device 1,the user can easily grasp the positional relation between the user's ownposition and the location where people are gathering.

It should be noted that there are various conceivable modes ofdisplaying the crowd mark 31.

The crowd mark 31 may be represented by a mark of a predetermined shape,a character image, or the like, or may be displayed in such a way thatthe crowd mark 31 is changed in color or is made to flash as anindication of its position on a map.

Also, if crowd position information included in crowd informationincludes the current head count as shown in FIGS. 17C to 17F, aconfiguration is also conceivable in which the system controller 10changes the size, color, or flashing speed of the crowd mark 31 inaccordance with the current head count (or the number of increase orrate of increase). This allows the user to also able to know how manypeople are gathering.

In the example of display in FIG. 21, when the above-described filteringis performed on the server device 70 side, a display is made inaccordance with the extraction criterion used.

For example, if crowd position information included in crowd informationincludes an extraction criterion as shown in FIGS. 17E and 17F, at thetime of presentation of a position indicated by the crowd positioninformation, the system controller 10 can select a character image to bedisplayed in accordance with the extraction criterion.

For example, if the extraction criterion is “woman”, as indicated by acrowd mark 32, a character image representing a woman is displayed.

Also, if the extraction criterion is “person who is running”, asindicated by a crowd mark 33, a character image indicating a person whois running is displayed.

Also, if the extraction criterion is “person who is excited”, asindicated by a crowd mark 34, a character image indicating a person whois excited is displayed.

Through display of these character images, the user of the terminaldevice 1 is also able to know what kinds of people are gathering.

It should be noted that the system controller 10 can perform the displayas shown in FIG. 21 even when crowd position information included in thereceived crowd information does not include an extraction criterion asshown in FIGS. 17E and 17F. This is because, for example, when requestinformation with an extraction criterion specified is transmitted fromthe terminal device 1 side as shown in FIG. 18, the system controller 10stores the extraction criterion at the time of the display process insteps F316 and F317, the system controller 10 can select a characterimage corresponding to the extraction criterion.

FIG. 22 shows a display example for providing more detailed informationto the user.

For example, suppose a case where the user performs an operation such asdesignating (for example, clicking on) the crowd mark 34 when thedisplay as shown in FIG. 21 mentioned above is made.

In this case, the system controller 10 can execute additionalinformation display 35 related to the crowd mark 34 with respect to theuser.

Of course, if additional information can be acquired without a user'soperation, the system controller 10 may automatically execute theadditional information display 35 as shown in FIG. 22.

For example, if crowd position information includes a position attributeand position-associated service data as shown in FIG. 17F, in the systemcontroller 10, additional information as a position attribute andposition-associated service is acquired in association with a positionindicated by the crowd position information. Accordingly, as shown inFIG. 22, the execution of a display based on a position attribute andposition-associated service can be controlled in accordance with auser's operation.

The position attribute is, for example, a place name, a location name, afacility name, a road name, or a facility kind, and position-associatedservice data is an URL related to a point corresponding to the position,a store's advertisement, business information, image, discountinformation, or photograph image or comment as data posted by a generaluser. The system controller 10 can execute the additional informationdisplay 35 in accordance with these pieces of information.

For example, suppose a case where a person who is present at thelocation of the crowd mark 34 has come across a live street performanceof an artist “AAA”, and is posting a captured image of the performanceand comment to the server device 70 side.

At this time, the crowd information to be sent to the terminal device 1that is present at the location indicated by the self-position display30 in the drawing is received while having this captured image, andcomment data such as “AAA is doing a live guerrilla performance!”included in the position-associated service data. At this time, thesystem controller 10 can cause the additional information display 35 asshown in FIG. 22 to be executed automatically, or in response to auser's operation.

It should be noted that a configuration is also possible in which suchadditional information (position attribute and position-associatedservice data) is not transmitted/received while being included in crowdposition information, but when, for example, the user performs anoperation of designating the crowd mark 34, the system controller 10controls communication access to the server device 70, and requests theserver device 70 to transmit additional information.

It should be noted that the additional information display 35 may notnecessarily be one based on the position attribute orposition-associated service data provided from the server device 70. Forexample, in the example of FIG. 22, a text “106 people are excited!” isdisplayed. If crowd position information includes a current head countand an extraction criterion as shown in FIGS. 17D and 17E, the systemcontroller 10 can create text data as a description of the positioninformation. That is, if the current head count is 106, and theextraction criterion is “person who is excited”, the system controller10 generates the above-mentioned text data, and can display this textdata as the additional information display 35.

FIG. 23 is an example of display based on the crowd inevitability level.For example, a case is assumed in which crowd marks 34A and 34B aredisplayed on the basis of crowd information that is transmitted from theserver device 70 as a result of filtering according to an extractioncriterion “person who is excited”. In this case, it is assumed thatcrowd position information in the crowd information includes informationon the crowd inevitability level as shown in FIG. 17D.

As described above, from the viewpoint of whether or not an accidentalincident is happening at a given location, even when people aregathering at a location with high crowd inevitability level, thisinformation is not very valuable for the user. On the other hand, ifpeople are gathering at a location with low crowd inevitability level,that information is valuable information.

For example, the position indicated by the crowd mark 34B in FIG. 23 isa concert hall or the like, whereas the position indicated by the crowdmark 34A is just some street.

In this case, on the position management database 78 in the serverdevice 70, a high crowd inevitability level is set with respect to theposition of the crowd mark 34B, whereas a low crowd inevitability levelis set with respect to the position of the crowd mark 34A. Then, thecrowd inevitability levels are added to the gathering positioninformation and transmitted to the terminal device 1.

The system controller 10 of the terminal device 1 can change the displaysize in accordance with the crowd inevitability level. That is, thelower the crowd inevitability level of a location, the more valuable isthe information that people are gathering there, so the location isindicated by the larger crowd mark 34A as shown in the drawing, and alocation with high crowd inevitability level is indicated by the smallcrowd mark 34B.

Thus, the user can determine the degree of gathering of people in thesense whether the gathering is due to an accidental incident.

While the size of the crowd mark 34 is changed in this example, thedegree of inevitability may be expressed by the color of the crowd mark34, its flashing speed, or the like.

Further, while in this example the display size or the like is changedin accordance with the crowd inevitability level included in crowdinformation received by the system controller 10, the system controller10 may also determine the crowd inevitability level in accordance withthe facility kind or the like that can be grasped from the map database17 c, and select a display mode. For example, if it can be grasped fromthe map database 17 c that a position for making a notification displayin accordance with crowd information is a concert hall, a sport stadium,or the like, it is determined that the crowd inevitability level is highat the location.

While examples of display have been illustrated above, there are variousother conceivable display modes for presenting a location where peopleare gathering.

Also, when displaying a map, it is common to change the scale of themap. In this regard, it is also appropriate to change the upper limitfor the number of notification displays of locations where people aregathering, in accordance with the scale.

[11. Effect of Embodiment and Modifications]

According to the embodiment described above, the user of the terminaldevice 1 (1B) is able to know an incident, an event, or the like thatthe user would not normally be able to know unless he/she were on thescene, as information on a location where people are gathering. Thismakes it possible to provide very useful information to the user.

Further, a display that expresses not simply a gathering of people butalso information such as what kinds of people are gathering, about howmany people are gathering, and the like is made, which also provessuitable for the user to judge whether or not an incident that ishappening at that location is of interest to the user. It is thuspossible to provide appropriate information to the user.

In the case of the operation example I for display of crowd informationin FIG. 15 mentioned above, when the user of the terminal device 1 wantsto know information about a location where people are gathering, theuser can obtain that information.

Also, in the case of the operation example II for display of crowdinformation in FIG. 18 mentioned above, when the user of the terminaldevice 1 wants to know information about a location where peoplematching a specific extraction criterion are gathering, the user canobtain that information.

Also, in the case of the operation example III for display of crowdinformation in FIG. 19 mentioned above, the user of the terminal device1 is notified of information about a location where people aregathering, in accordance with changes in condition of the location wherepeople are gathering, so the user is easily able to know a locationwhere an accidental incident is happening.

The present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments,but various modifications of device configuration or processing areconceivable.

The above-described configuration of each of the terminal device 1, 1A,1B, and server device 70 is merely an example, and various additions ordeletions of components are of course conceivable in accordance with theoperation example or function actually implemented.

For example, while the terminal device 1, 1B is configured to includethe display section 14, the display section may not be provided, and adisplay may be executed by using a separate display device.

While in the above-mentioned embodiment individual management of eachterminal device 1 is performed on the server device 70 side by using auser ID, a system operation that does not use information foridentifying a user or terminal device, such as a user ID, is alsoconceivable.

That is, in this case, no user ID or the like is included in currentcondition information transmitted from the terminal device 1, 1A, andthe server device 70 performs management of only the head count withrespect to each of the positions P1, P2 . . . , simply on the basis ofcurrent condition information. Then, on the basis of the head countmanagement, crowd information is generated and transmitted to anunspecified terminal device 1, 1B.

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that variousmodifications, combinations, sub-combinations and alterations may occurdepending on design requirements and other factors insofar as they arewithin the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.

1. An information provision system comprising: a terminal device; and aninformation provision device that can communicate with the terminaldevice, wherein the information provision device includes communicatingmeans for communicating with the terminal device; head count informationmanaging means for managing current head count information for eachposition, crowd information generating means for determining a positionfor making a notification display, based on the current head countinformation managed by the head count managing means, and generatingcrowd information containing information of the position for making thenotification display, and transmission control means for causing thecrowd information generated by the crowd information generating means tobe transmitted from the communicating means to the terminal device, andwherein the terminal device includes communicating means forcommunicating with the information provision device, and control meansfor executing a display of a map image on an integrated or separatedisplay section, and executing on the map image a display based on crowdinformation transmitted from the information provision device andreceived by the communicating means.
 2. An information provision devicecomprising: communicating means for communicating with an externalterminal device; head count information managing means for managingcurrent head count information for each position; crowd informationgenerating means for determining a position for making a notificationdisplay, based on the current head count information managed by the headcount information managing means, and generating crowd informationcontaining information of the position for making the notificationdisplay; and transmission control means for causing the crowdinformation generated by the crowd information generating means to betransmitted from the communicating means to the external terminaldevice.
 3. The information provision device according to claim 2,wherein the crowd information generating means determines the positionfor making the notification display by determining whether or not acurrent head count at each position is equal to or more than apredetermined head count, from the head count information managed by thehead count information managing means.
 4. The information provisiondevice according to claim 2, wherein the crowd information generatingmeans determines the position for making the notification display bydetermining whether or not an amount of change in head count at eachposition is equal to or more than a predetermined amount of change, fromthe head count information managed by the head count informationmanaging means.
 5. The information provision device according to claim2, wherein: the communicating means receives current conditioninformation transmitted from the external terminal device and containingat least current position information of the terminal device; and thehead count information managing means manages the current head countinformation at each position by using the received current conditioninformation.
 6. The information provision device according to claim 5,wherein: the current condition information also contains identificationinformation on the terminal device side; and the head count informationmanaging means manages information of a person present at each positionbased on the identification information.
 7. The information provisiondevice according to claim 6, wherein: the current condition informationfurther contains biometric information or motion information of a personcarrying the terminal device; and the head count information managingmeans manages the biometric information or the motion information as theinformation of a person present at each position, together with theidentification information.
 8. The information provision deviceaccording to claim 6, wherein the head count information managing meansmanages attribute registration information of a person who uses theterminal device, in association with the identification information. 9.The information provision device according to claim 6, wherein the headcount information managing means manages stay time at a current positionin association with the identification information, as the informationof a person present at each position.
 10. The information provisiondevice according to claim 3, wherein when determining whether or not thecurrent head count at each position is equal to or more than apredetermined head count, the crowd information generating means makesthe determination while setting a different value of the predeterminedhead count for each position, to determine the position for making anotification display.
 11. The information provision device according toclaim 3, wherein the crowd information generating means determines theposition for making a notification display by determining whether or notthe current head count at each position as a position within a specificarea range is equal to or more than a predetermined head count.
 12. Theinformation provision device according to claim 3, wherein the crowdinformation generating means determines the position for making anotification display by determining, as the current head count for eachposition, a current head count of persons who match a predeterminedextraction criterion, and determining whether or not the determinedcurrent head count is equal to or more than a predetermined head count.13. The information provision device according to claim 12, wherein theextraction criterion includes at least one of person's attributeregistration information, biometric information, motion information, andstay time.
 14. The information provision device according to claim 3,wherein the crowd information generating means determines the positionfor making a notification display on the basis of a position where acurrent head count is equal to or more than a predetermined head count,and in accordance with distribution of attribute information of personspresent.
 15. The information provision device according to claim 4,wherein when determining whether or not the amount of change in currenthead count at each position is equal to or more than a predeterminedhead count, the crowd information generating means makes thedetermination by setting a different value of the reference amount ofchange for each position, to determine the position for making anotification display.
 16. The information provision device according toclaim 4, wherein the crowd information generating means determines theposition for making a notification display by determining whether or notthe amount of change in current head count at each position as aposition within a specific area range is equal to or more than areference amount of change.
 17. The information provision deviceaccording to claim 4, wherein the crowd information generating meansdetermines the position for making a notification display by determininga current head count of persons who match a predetermined extractioncriterion at each position, and determining whether or not an amount ofchange in the determined current head count is equal to or more than areference amount of change.
 18. The information provision deviceaccording to claim 17, wherein the extraction criterion includes atleast one of person's attribute registration information, biometricinformation, motion information, and stay time.
 19. The informationprovision device according to claim 3, wherein the crowd informationgenerating means determines the position for making a notificationdisplay on the basis of a position where an amount of change in headcount is equal to or more than a reference amount of change, and inaccordance with distribution of attribute information of personspresent.
 20. The information provision device according to claim 2,wherein the crowd information generating means generates crowdinformation containing information of a position determined as theposition for making a notification display, and information of a currenthead count or an amount of change in head count at the position.
 21. Theinformation provision device according to claim 2, wherein the crowdinformation generating means generates crowd information containinginformation of a position determined as the position for making anotification display, and information of an extraction criterion usedwhen determining the position.
 22. The information provision deviceaccording to claim 2, wherein the crowd information generating meansgenerates crowd information containing information of a positiondetermined as the position for making a notification display, andadditional information for the determined position.
 23. The informationprovision device according to claim 2, wherein the transmission controlmeans causes the crowd information generated by the crowd informationgenerating means to be transmitted from the communicating means to theterminal device, in response to reception of request information fromthe external terminal device.
 24. The information provision deviceaccording to claim 2, wherein the transmission control means causes thecrowd information generated by the crowd information generating means tobe transmitted from the communicating means to the terminal device, attransmission timing according to a change in head count condition. 25.An information provision method comprising steps of: managing currenthead count information for each position; determining a position formaking a notification display, based on the managed current head countinformation, and generating crowd information containing information ofthe position for making the notification display; and transmitting thegenerated crowd information to an external terminal device.
 26. Aterminal device comprising: communicating means for communicating withan external information provision device; and control means forexecuting a display of a map image on an integrated or separate displaysection, and executing on the map image a display based on crowdinformation that is transmitted from the external information provisiondevice and received by the communicating means and contains positioninformation of a position for making a notification display.
 27. Theterminal device according to claim 26, wherein: the crowd informationcontains the position information of the position for making thenotification display, and information of a current head count or anamount of change in head count at the position; and the control meansexecutes, as the display based on the crowd information, a display thatvaries in accordance with the current head count or the amount of changein head count, at a position on the map image corresponding to theposition information.
 28. The terminal device according to claim 26,wherein: the crowd information contains the position information of theposition for making the notification display, and information of anextraction criterion used when determining the position; and the controlmeans executes, as the display based on the crowd information, a displaythat varies in accordance with the extraction criterion, at The positionon the map image corresponding to the position information.
 29. Theterminal device according to claim 26, wherein: the crowd informationcontains the position information of the position for making thenotification display, and additional information with respect to theposition; and the control means executes a display based on theadditional information as the display based on the crowd information, ata position on the map image corresponding to the position information.30. A display method for a terminal device that can communicate with anexternal information provision device, comprising steps of: receivingcrowd information containing position information of a position formaking a notification display, from the external information provisiondevice; and executing a display of a map image on an integrated orseparate display section, and executing a display based on the receivedcrowd information of the map image.
 31. An information provision systemcomprising: a terminal device; and an information provision device thatcan communicate with the terminal device, wherein the informationprovision device includes a communicating section configured tocommunicate with the terminal device; a head count information managingsection configured to manage current head count information for eachposition, a crowd information generating section configured to determinea position for making a notification display, based on the current headcount information managed by the head count managing section, andgenerate crowd information containing information of the position formaking a notification display, and a transmission control sectionconfigured to cause the crowd information generated by the crowdinformation generating section to be transmitted from the communicatingsection to the terminal device, and wherein the terminal device includesa communicating section configured to communicate with the informationprovision device, and a control section configured to execute a displayof a map image on an integrated or separate display section, and executeon the map image a display based on crowd information transmitted fromthe information provision device and received by the communicatingsection.
 32. An information provision device comprising: a communicatingsection configured to communicate with an external terminal device; ahead count information managing section configured to manage currenthead count information for each position; a crowd information generatingsection configured to determine a position for making a notificationdisplay, based on the current head count information managed by the headcount managing section, and generate crowd information containinginformation of the position for making the notification display; and atransmission control section configured to cause the crowd informationgenerated by the crowd information generating section to be transmittedfrom the communicating section to the external terminal device.
 33. Aterminal device comprising: a communicating section configured tocommunicating with an external information provision device; and acontrol section configured to execute a display of a map image on anintegrated or separate display section, and execute on the map image adisplay based on crowd information that is transmitted from the externalinformation provision device and received by the communicating sectionand contains position information of a position for making anotification display.